The Public and Joe's Pub Begin Previews BLACK LIGHT February 12

The Public Theater begin previews of Black Light, starring Jomama Jones, the alter ego of Daniel Alexander Jones, on Monday, February 12 in Joe's Pub at The Public. Black Light is a moving, music-laden work - a revival of sorts - for turbulent times. Created by Jones, the show features original music by Jomama, Laura Jean Anderson, Bobby Halvorson, Dylan Meek and Josh Quat with music direction by Samora Abayomi Pinderhughes. Performances begin Monday, February 12 and run through Sunday, March 25, with an official press opening on Sunday, February 25.

Tickets are available online, over the phone (212-967-7555) and in-person at The Public Theater's box office (425 Lafayette, NYC). There is no food or drink minimum for these performances.

Continuing The Public's mission to make great theater accessible to all, The Public's First Performance "Free for All" continues this fall; free tickets to the first preview on Monday, February 12 are available now, via TodayTix mobile lottery. Additionally, $20 mobile rush tickets will be made available on the TodayTix App for each performance beginning on Tuesday, February 13.

Shanta Thake, Director of Joe's Pub, said, "We are seeing an artist at the height of his career creating new work with a vibrancy of material and urgency of purpose. Daniel Alexander Jones, channeling the great Jomama Jones, is an artist who cuts to the core in ways that are both transformational and transcendent."

Black Light draws musical influence from Prince, Sade, Diana Ross, and Tina Turner, and is marked significantly by the Black American Freedom movement, Afromysticism, goddess mythology and divination. Jomama takes her audience on an intimate journey - the depths of personal and political upheaval, and the shards of shattered illusions - through her story, which is illuminated by phenomenal wit and what The New Yorker calls her "very particular radiance." Black Light removes the barrier between artist and audience, allowing them to bear witness, be witnessed and recharge.

Black Light is part of New York Voices, the artist-commissioning program of Joe's Pub at The Public, made possible, in part, by generous funding by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Daniel Alexander Jones makes theater, music, and live performance. His wildflower body of work continues to grow in dialogue with a wide range of collaborators and audiences. Duat premiered at Soho Rep in 2016 to critical acclaim (including a five-star review from Time Out). His other performance pieces and plays include Phantasmatron, Phoenix Fabrik Blood:Shock:Boogie, and Bel Canto. He adapted the second of L. Frank Baum's Oz books into a musical, Bright Now Beyond, with composer Bobby Halvorson and director Will Davis. Daniel's multi-chapter series of solo autobiographical performances, The Book of Daniel, included collaborations with MacArthur Fellow Walter Kitundu, and celebrated director Tea Alagic.

Daniel first appeared as his performance alter-ego, Jomama Jones in 1995; since her "comeback" in 2010, Jomama has released four albums, Lone Star, Radiate, Six Ways Home, and, in 2017, the double-album, Flowering. Jomama premiered Radiate to rave reviews and sold-out houses at Soho Rep in 2010 and the piece subsequently toured to cities including Los Angeles, Austin, Minneapolis and Boston. Daniel received a 2015 Doris Duke Artist Award, among the most prestigious awards in the arts, in recognition of his risk-taking practice, and a 2016 USA Artist Fellow; he was also named an inaugural Mellon Foundation Creative Research Fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle for 2017-2019. He is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Fordham University in NYC, where he lives.

New York Voices is the artist-commissioning program of Joe's Pub at The Public. Part of The Public's long history of cultivating the country's most celebrated artists, the program supports the creation of new works by critically-acclaimed musicians and performers. Encouraging artists to explore their own storytelling, narratives and songwriting, New York Voices hosts a development workshop with The Public's artistic staff as well as resources like rehearsal space, time and financial backing. Each commission culminates with a run of live shows on the Joe's Pub stage. New York Voices helps artists connect with their contemporaries and wider audiences - many of the program's works have gone on to tour nationally and internationally. Commissioned artists include Abigail Washburn, Bridget Everett, Noche Flamenca, Toshi Reagon, Lady Rizo, Allen Toussaint, Angelique Kidjo, Dawn Landes, Martha Redbone, Justin Vivian Bond, Kenny Mellman and Ethan Lipton. Everett's Rock Bottom and Lipton's No Place to Go both won Obie Awards.

TICKETS:

ONLINE at joespub.com / PHONE, 10AM-7:00PM, DAILY 212-967-7555
IN PERSON The Public Theater Box Office, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC (Opens daily at 2PM)

Joe's Pub AT THE PUBLIC, named for Public Theater founder Joe Papp, opened in 1998 and plays a vital role in The Public's mission of supporting young artists while providing established artists with an intimate space to perform and develop new work. Joe's Pub presents the best in live music and performance nightly, continuing its commitment to diversity, production values, community and artistic freedom. The organization also offers unique opportunities like New York Voices, an artist commissioning program that provides musicians the resources and tools needed to develop original theater works; Joe's Pub Working Group, an artist development initiative; and nationwide programming partnerships. In 2011, the Pub received a top-to-bottom renovation, leading to improved sightlines, expanded seating capacity and a new menu from acclaimed chef Andrew Carmellini. With its intimate atmosphere and superior acoustics, Joe's Pub presents talent from all over the world as part of The Public's programming downtown at its Astor Place home, hosting approximately 800 shows and serving over 100,000 audience members annually.

THE PUBLIC is a theater of, by, and for the people. Artist-driven, radically inclusive, and fundamentally democratic, The Public continues the work of its visionary founder Joe Papp as a civic institution engaging, both on-stage and off, with some of the most important ideas and social issues of today. Conceived over 60 years ago as one of the nation's first nonprofit theaters, The Public has long operated on the principles that theater is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public's wide breadth of programming includes an annual season of new work at its landmark home at Astor Place, Free Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, The Mobile Unit touring throughout New York City's five boroughs, Public Forum, Under the Radar, Public Studio, Public Works, Public Shakespeare Initiative, and Joe's Pub. Since premiering HAIR in 1967, The Public continues to create the canon of American Theater and is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda and John Leguizamo's Latin History for Morons. Their programs and productions can also be seen regionally across the country and around the world. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 169 Obie Awards, 53 Drama Desk Awards, 54 Lortel Awards, 32 Outer Critic Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Desk Awards, and 6 Pulitzer Prizes.

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